Seven years ago, I developed a mysterious chronic pain in my upper body that had me unable to type, hold a piece of paper, and relegated to the cool wooden floor of my girlfriend’s apartment for hours a day.
I was 26, unable to work, and learning to...

Pain is tough, of course, but the thoughts and feelings of shame which pain can stir up are the real nightmare. In my own history and my private practice teaching adults with pain, feelings of shame are never far behind a chronic pain condition. In...

There’s a big fat hammer up above, beyond the blue in the sky,” he told me. “It’s just up there waitin’. One day, when you least expect it, that hammer comes streakin’ down on you like Big Pink’s fist. That’s the ultimate test for a boxer, for any...

What follows is something I wrote this morning for myself to bring some context to this anniversary of my sobriety. Afterwards I thought to post it here to give it at least some life outside of my brain and computer. May this post and...